国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

122

THOMSON, HOOKER, CAMPBELL AND CUNNINGHAM.

and called this line one range. In reality the absolute height has nothing to do with the ranges. Any fold may be an individual range whether high or low, and the height is ordinarily a secondary matter depending on age and denudation.

In a note Hooker adds : I »The only true account of the general features of eastern Tibet is to be found in MM. Huc and Gabet's travels. Their description agrees with Dr. Thomson's account of western Tibet, and with my experience of

the parts to the north of Sikkim, and the information I everywhere obtained. The so-called plains are the flat floors of the valleys, and the terraces on the margins

of the rivers, which all flow between stupendous mountains. The term 'maidan', so often applied to Tibet by the natives, implies, not a plain like that of India, but simply an open, dry, treeless country, in contrast to the densely wooded wet regions of the snowy Himalaya, south of Tibet.»

Regarding the general orography of Tibet Hooker's standpoint is as follows: »Another mass like that of Chumulari and Donkia, is that around the Manasarovar lakes, so ably surveyed by the brothers Captains R. and H. Strachey, which is evidently the centre of the Himalaya. From it the Gogra, Sutlej, Indus, and Yaru rivers all flow to the Indian side of Asia; and from it spring four chains, two of which are better known than the others. These are : — 1 . The eastern Himalaya, whose axis runs north of Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhotan, to the bend of the Yaru, the valley of which it divides from the plains of India. 2. The north-west Himalaya, which separates the valley of the Indus from the plains of India. Behind these, and probably parallel to them, lie two other chains. 3. The Kouenlun or Karakorum chain, dividing the Indus from the Yarkund river. 4. The chain north of the Yaru, of which nothing is known. All the waters from the two first of these chains, flow into the Indian Ocean as do those from the south faces of the third and fourth; those from the north side of the Kouenlun, and of the chain north of the Yaru, flow into the great valley of Lake Lhop ...»

The most striking statement in this system is that Hooker, on the authority of

Humboldt and Thomson regards the Kara-korum as a part of Kwen-lun. Concerning the mountains north of the Tsangpo he says that nothing is known. He does not even mention Hodgson's constructions. For although Hodgson's views were published three years later, they must have been prepared beforehand and Hooker was on several occasions in 1848-5o Hodgson's guest. At any rate Asie Centrale appeared in 1843. But Hooker was too conscientious to accept anything that was not confirmed by reliable facts and as such he seems not to have accepted the Chinese sources. Therefore he calls Huc's book the only true account of the general features of eastern Tibet. Without any doubt Hooker was well acquainted with the geographical literature of High Asia. His general orography may therefore certainly be regarded as the standpoint of knowledge at his time. When he says that the rivers from the south

I Op, cit., II, P• 397•